London — Congolese and some Angolan heavy sweet grades were selling more rapidly on Friday ahead of February export programmes due early next week, as refiners sought suitable crude varieties for refining into very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO).
* Spain’s Repsol bought two cargoes of Congolese Djeno, loading Jan. 3-4 and 11-12, as well as Angolan Dalia for Jan. 16-17.
* After a lull in middle distillate refining margins, buyers are scaling up their interest in oil types that best produce cleaner shipping fuel ahead of new Jan. 1 global rules.
* Portugal’s Galp had been offering two cargoes of Angolan CLOV, for export on Jan. 5-6 and 23-24, before moving to absorb them into its own refining system.
* Chevron continues to offer a cargo of Angolan Cabinda for dated Brent plus $3.20.
* Around seven Angolan cargoes have yet to be sold from the January programme, in a slight improvement in the pace of selling compared with last month as export schedules are due to emerge for February on Monday.
* Chinese buying was again relatively slow for January and trading was weighed in recent days by an uptick in freight rates, but European demand remains relatively robust.
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– Reuters